Sounds drastic? Hardly. Don’t hold your breath and hope the two sides can play nice. No way. There’s no real common ground. And that’s important to realize here.

Take away, just for a second, all the animosity on each side. Philosophically, it’s hard to see a peaceful coexistence. I’ve talked at some length this year with district superintendent Grenita Lathan and Change150 leader Jim Powell. In a vacuum, each one makes sense on how to best run our schools.

Lathan embraces an administration that constantly rotates school principals as a way to avoid long-term complacency and encourage new ideas. She says that’s important in a large, urban district, where slackers can hide with no accountability. That makes sense.

Powell advocates strong localized control by principals, teachers and staff, who know more about their schools than the administration office. In that way, each school can run itself like a small-town school district. That makes sense, too.

But these are completely opposite plans. It’s hard to envision the two theories working together. Think of a pro football team that hires a pass-happy head coach to work with a general manager who drafts one running back after another. What happens? They don’t see eye-to-eye on anything, and everyone loses.

I realize public education is complex. If education plans were one-size-fits-all, schools nationwide would be looking sharp. But that’s not the case.

With District 150 and Change150 so radically polarized, it’s almost unimaginable that they could ever agree on a management system. Change150 suggests a third party be brought in to audit Lathan’s administration for a “pattern of fear and intimidation.” The problem is, how would a third party be picked? Who’d decide? And, most of all, do you really think the results would not be spun by each side?

In the end, they’d be barking at each other more than ever, the public lost even further.

Spin already leaves Peoria dizzy amid the educational chaos. Last week, a Peoria County jury awarded $35,000 to a former district treasurer for the emotional distress caused by her firing without a hearing. Score one for Change150’s claims of Lathan’s culture of intimidation? Maybe. Then again, a district lawyer also praised the verdict, because the jury confirmed the termination as justified.

Page 2 of 2 - Also last week, the School Board picked a replacement for a long-open seat but ignored the candidate endorsed by Change150. In response, Change150 said it would try to work with the new choice, though the group also has vowed to vote out any board member who doesn’t sing along in harmony.

So what to do in Peoria? I won’t pretend to have that answer. But it’s hard to see much positive in the near future as District 150 and Change150 keep digging in. There’s no meeting of the minds; they’re just ramming their heads together.

How should we look at that? To be sure, some fights are worth the price. If you are a zealot for either camp, you hope your side keeps slamming away until the other is bloodied and defeated. However, if you’re somewhere in the middle, you’ll have to brace yourself for a long, nasty war.

Maybe Lathan could decide to leave Peoria. Or maybe Change150’s leaders would see their kids graduate and decide to give up. Absent either option, the bombast will rage on and on. Buckle up.

And remember, with Peoria’s schools, the ripple reverberates far beyond city limits.

A regional economy can’t be bolstered with new businesses and families if the core is collapsing.

It’s too bad that some of this can’t be hashed out at some town hall meetings. I’m not interested in those three-minutes blurts at a regular board meeting. I’m talking about a series of open meetings where people could air out concerns. You wouldn’t simply turn over the microphone to the same tired complainers on both sides, but foster new voices, ideas and dialogue.

I know: It sounds impossible. It sounds crazy.

Maybe it can happen in a fantasy land — or, perhaps, in a world that’s not so Peoria.